tickets
by ohthelinsanity
Summary: After her battle with Zaheer, Korra is pretty much left bedridden. Lin and Mako try to cheer her up. (post book 3)


"Want to help me with something?"

Korra perks up from her bed to which she's been confined to for the past two weeks. After being told for days straight that she won't be _helping _anyone anytime soon, not until she's better, she's surprised to find Mako asking her for help; Lin follows in seconds later, notepads in her hand. "What's up?" Korra asks, grimacing at her hoarse voice.

"Thought we could give Tenzin a hard time," Lin smirks as Mako pulls two chairs to Korra's bed side. He lets the Chief take the one at the foot of the bed, and she props her feet over Korra's legs. "Tell me if this hurts."

"It hurts," Korra deadpans and Lin removes her feet with a roll of her eyes. "Why would I want to give Tenzin a hard time?"

Mako plucks one of Lin's notepads from her lap. "Because," he drawls, scribbling away on the paper, "He's violating the law by not having wheelchair accessibility on his temple."

Earlier, Lin had cracked a joke about writing Tenzin up when she had to earthbend Korra up the temple stairs for Jinora's ceremony, but she didn't think she would _actually _do it. "What? It's an _airbending _temple. They can fly. Why would he?"

"Air acolytes live here, and _they _can't airbend," Lin points out. "So when you think about it, Tenzin's probably crushing some poor man's dream out there because there's, according to Ikki, 1,387 stairs that he can't get his damn chair up."

"We have to correct it," Mako tells Korra, poking her nose with the blunt end of his pen. "But there's a lot of violations. And a _lot _of tickets to write up. Even if they are fake."

Lin holds up the notepads towards the window, hoping the light could illuminate Mako's small scrawl on the covers. She mumbles something about teaching him how write properly. "Which do you want," Lin squints, holding three in one hand and fanning them like a hand of cards in the light, "The gliders, bison saddles, or….the kitchen cabinets."

"The kitchen cabinets?" Korra squawks. It's more of a question, but Lin takes it as an answer and tosses the pad into Korra's lap, along with a pen.

"Who had to get your bowl for your fruit this morning because you couldn't reach it?" Mako teases.

"….Asami," Korra mumbles, looking away.

"Exactly."

"Or," Lin reaches down into a bag that she kicked aside as soon as she had come in. She pulls out Tenzin's long red robe, wrinkled from being bundled. "You can help me sew more tickets into his cloak."

This time, Korra smiles a bit. "How's a cloak a violation?"

"It isn't," Lin shrugs, "I just figured if we're gonna mess with him, might as well go all out." She stands up to fan it all out. "But then again, I guess you couldn't really wear it without rolling over it, so. I'll count that as a violation."

"I think you're going a little overboard, don't you think?" Korra asks as she takes the cloak and inspects it. Lin or Mako—whoever it was—did an awful job of sewing them in. Probably because it was a piece of paper—flimsy and horrible to try and sew with. They probably should have tried using some heat. "Beifong this looks awful. Who taught you to sew?"

"My blind mother?"

"….Oh. Right. Well, Mako should have known how to do this," she gives him a disapproving look, trying to channel Tenzin's mean scowl. "You've seen me sew those ratty shirts of yours dozens of times," she peaks under his collar and frowns, "Which by the way," she reaches over and unbuttons his top button to reveal another tear. "You keep ripping up!"

Mako blushes, embarrassed. "Police work is very tough on cotton," he pouts.

Korra rolls her eyes, but she notes it's the first time in ages she's really felt like smiling because everything just felt _normal_; even if she was in a wheelchair. "Just give me a needle and thread. I'll take a stab at it." Still sick and making killer puns, apparently.

"Told you we needed your help," Mako whispers, a grin splitting his face in two. "We'd be lost without you, Korra."

"Yeah. Who else would help you with your pranks?" and she actually laughs. Mako's eyes light up like it's something he hasn't heard before.

"Stop getting sappy and get to writing!" Lin snaps. "I slapped one on Jinora's forehead while she was taking a nap, I don't know when she'll wake up."

Mako's smile shifts to something sly and crooked on his face. "Just wait until Kai notices what I've done to his wallet."

Korra didn't even have to ask. "You replaced all his yuans with tickets, didn't you."

Quiet laughter is his answer.

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AN: this one was based on a tumblr post. Again, more post book 3 fun!


End file.
